Cheapest Video Games Worth Your Time

Whenever I pick up a new console, the first thing I do is scour eBay for the highest praised games that are especially cheap. This allows me to quickly build up a library of games without spending a lot of money. Just recently, I have been keeping track of which games fit this criteria and compiling them as quick guides for other cheapskate gamers.

How I came up with the lists and prices:
To make sure I was organized and covered everything I should, I compiled a list of all the “best” games for each of the major consoles from the Atari 2600 to the PS2, Gamecube, and XBox. (Newer systems will be covered once more games get cheaper). For newer systems, Metacritic helped me come up with most of the titles I wanted. For older systems, hunted down every game list I could and consulted reviews of games I wasn’t familiar with. I tried to note what the average review score each game received.

I put these lists in an Excel spreadsheet and then looked up the last 30 days of closed eBay auctions of each title and kept track of what the average closing price (including shipping) for auctions with at least one bid. Since these are average prices, you very well may find the more common games for significantly lower or higher prices.